Deadline Hollywood and Kevin Smith directly to distribute Red State.
Per Deadline, Lionsgate obtains rights to distribute the title on all packaged media, video on demand, subscription video on demand, electronic sell-through and TV in the US. Kevin Smith’s SModcast retains theatrical rights. Red State is scheduled for release in September followed by packaged media before year’s end. Red State revolves around a group of teens in Middle America who receive an online invitation for sex but soon encounter fundamentalists with a much more sinister agenda.
What does this mean? Releasing films theatrically is one thing, but distributing it on DVD, et al, requires more than one imagines SModcast has to offer. So it makes sense that Smith would go to Lionsgate, who did release Dogma 12 years ago, because trying to do that aspect on his own is a significant investment. One imagines that VOD, et al, is going to be a big portion of this film’s revenues and as such getting together with a company that does it fairly well will help prop up the bottom line.
